After visiting on Saturday (and having similar issues a couple of years back), I just want to raise my concerns as to why the park doesn't seem to be ready for even a moderate number of guests on park in February Half Term.
The first issue is that food & drink outlets were ridiculously understaffed. For example, only having one or two people serving in Courtyard BBQ, with a queue stretching half the length of the courtyard, and only one person serving the food in Towers Family Restaurant is just madness on the first weekend the park is open in 2013. From what I gather, it's not even as if the park weren't expecting it - they had several thousand prebooked tickets.... surely, even with a week or two's notice, they could get more staff (even just on a temporary basis or agency staff as per Scarefest) to help with the queues.
From a ride point of view (and I realise this is much more difficult to sort due to the training required so am more sympathetic here ) the park was easily busy enough to run 2 stations on Air and perhaps even open Th13teen and/or Rita to stem the queues elsewhere somewhat, but they did not have the staff available to do so - I think that for next year, Towers need to consider opening one more major coaster, as the event is now busy enough to warrant it (Oblivion & Air maybe, rather than just one or the other?)
To their credit, the staff that were there were top-notch as usual, there just weren't enough of them.
My other major gripe this weekend was the publicity of the ride selection, from the perception of members of the public who perhaps don't visit often. Several times during the day, we overheard complaints as to the lack of open. The fact that this wasn't just overheard once or twice presumably means that the limited ride selection wasn't promoted clearly at the point they heard about the event.
I just think Alton Towers need to realise that it's not the quiet event it was 2-3 years ago, and put the effort into it that it deserves, especially now they've started attaching an IP to the week.
The first issue is that food & drink outlets were ridiculously understaffed. For example, only having one or two people serving in Courtyard BBQ, with a queue stretching half the length of the courtyard, and only one person serving the food in Towers Family Restaurant is just madness on the first weekend the park is open in 2013. From what I gather, it's not even as if the park weren't expecting it - they had several thousand prebooked tickets.... surely, even with a week or two's notice, they could get more staff (even just on a temporary basis or agency staff as per Scarefest) to help with the queues.
From a ride point of view (and I realise this is much more difficult to sort due to the training required so am more sympathetic here ) the park was easily busy enough to run 2 stations on Air and perhaps even open Th13teen and/or Rita to stem the queues elsewhere somewhat, but they did not have the staff available to do so - I think that for next year, Towers need to consider opening one more major coaster, as the event is now busy enough to warrant it (Oblivion & Air maybe, rather than just one or the other?)
To their credit, the staff that were there were top-notch as usual, there just weren't enough of them.
My other major gripe this weekend was the publicity of the ride selection, from the perception of members of the public who perhaps don't visit often. Several times during the day, we overheard complaints as to the lack of open. The fact that this wasn't just overheard once or twice presumably means that the limited ride selection wasn't promoted clearly at the point they heard about the event.
I just think Alton Towers need to realise that it's not the quiet event it was 2-3 years ago, and put the effort into it that it deserves, especially now they've started attaching an IP to the week.